How to Make Brown Grass Turn Green Again

By Tina Lane

In the arduous journey toward immaculate green lawns, homeowners are continuously flustered. Despite our greatest efforts, many of us are plagued with patchy brown blades of mediocre suburban grass. The key is finding balance. Both too much and too little of any one thing, like water, fertilizer or PH level, is bad. Instead of throwing yourself into a cure-all remedy for your brown lawn practice a sound overall strategy that covers all the basics. This will make achieving that gorgeous green lawn a little easier.

Water your lawn consistently and regularly. The soil beneath your lawn should be kept moist at least 4 to 6 inches below the ground. If you can not maintain the appropriate levels of moisture by hand, install an automatic sprinkler system to eliminate human error.

Use an aerating machine or aerator sandals to loosen up compacted soil. Oxygen and moisture have a more difficult time penetrating compacted soil. Aerating will make your soil more amenable to watering and other treatments.

Access the PH level of your lawn using a PH meter. Imbalanced PH levels make your grass susceptible to disease and pest infestations. Treat PH levels below 7.0 with lime pellets. Treat PH levels above 7.0 with sulfur granules. Follow the instructions included on the packaging to determine what quantities are best to use based on the size of your lawn.

Treat your lawn for pests to prevent infestations. Use pest killing granules to kill lawn pests two to four times per year based on the packaging instructions and the type of pests that are most common to your area.

Dig up a shovel full of soil and inspect it for insects. An examination of the soil will help determine whether you should pursue pesticide treatments for a specific bug problem, such as a grub infestation.

Avoid applying fertilizer to a brown lawn. While fertilizer does help to keep a lawn green, the mineral salts contained inside of fertilizer have a natural ability to leech moisture from the grass, also known as fertilizer burn. Brown grass needs more moisture not less. Once you have re-hydrated your lawn you may resume your fertilizer schedule throughout the growing season.

Treat yellowish brown grass that goes dormant during the winter with rye grass. Rye grass is a perennial grass that grows well in cool weather and dies off for the warm months. Sprinkle rye grass seeds over your freshly mowed lawn in the offseason and follow with a good watering. Spread compost or manure over the area to help the rye seeds to germinate into a beautiful winter lawn.

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About the Author

Tina Lane is a freelance writer and blogger in the Cincinnati and Dayton area. Her work has been published in the Eastsider Magazine, The Voice of the Miami Valley, and various online media. She blogs at FloridaGirlMeetstheMidwest.com, where she has been writing for two years. Tina is a Rollins College Alumni.